Question about Tax Assessment (Montgomery: sale, mortgage, how much)

[bohunak]

OP,
what would help you tremendously, if you have any small damage, or unfinished, or dated. If you do, just take pictures and some estimate what it would cost you. If you have everything new and updated, it's hard to fight them. We send them pictures of the roof, floors, or old fences pretty much anything. But if your house is brand new, it's hard to fight it. Good luck

[grooveman]

Prey521 we are in the same subdivision as you , although our preliminary value came in much lower than the neighbors house down the street which the exact same floor plan as ours, with ours having the larger lot. No clue why that is.
My appraisal was about 25k less than what we paid.

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by DRob4JC

Has anyone had the experience of an entire section's assessments increasing $40-$50K?

Ours went from around $250K to $290K with no improvements. We just purchased in Nov 2014.

I am considering protesting (which I have never done before), but it would seem to be difficult when the whole section increased around the same amount.

This is in Fort Bend by the way.

Probably not much you can do when your whole area goes up a similar amount. When I got mine in line with the others, I ended up just hiring one of the property tax appeal companies and they try to keep mine down. They saved me some for several years, but nothing the last two years. My market value was increased more than the 10% cap so the appraisal value hit the cap in 2014, 2015, and again this year.

Now I'm assuming you have a homestead filed, so your taxable appraisal amount should have only gone up $25K even though the market value went up $40K. If you have some basis for why your property is worth less than your neighbors, then I could see you getting it reduced via protest. But it might be an option to hire one of the services since your neighborhood is so tight in the increase.

Good luck!

[NTexas2010]

With the rain and flooding last week, our property did suffer some minor damage (leaking roof, water spotting in drywall, damage to the exterior of our barn, etc) - would these be things I can take pictures of and present/protest with against the CAD?

[bohunak]

Originally Posted by NTexas2010

With the rain and flooding last week, our property did suffer some minor damage (leaking roof, water spotting in drywall, damage to the exterior of our barn, etc) - would these be things I can take pictures of and present/protest with against the CAD?

In Montgomery county you can. I don't have any idea about your county. That's what people who we hire to fight taxes for us, ask first.
I guess, you can try it.

[Prey521]

With the house being brand new, there isn't really any damage or repair work for me to claim, so my only claim would be that my neighbors second floor as the layout, but valued at 15k less.

Thanks everyone for the tips! MC lets you file your protests online, which is something new for 2016 apparently, so I will go ahead and protest it that way to see how well it works out. If I could get it knocked down about 10-13k so that it's on par with my neighbors assessment, I'll be happy! I'll update with the results.

[Prey521]

Originally Posted by grooveman

Prey521 we are in the same subdivision as you , although our preliminary value came in much lower than the neighbors house down the street which the exact same floor plan as ours, with ours having the larger lot. No clue why that is.
My appraisal was about 25k less than what we paid.

Awesome! Where in Tavola are you?

[RMESMH]

Originally Posted by Prey521

I received my Homestead tax assessment from Montgomery County and being that this is the first home I've ever owned in Texas, I need some guidance if possible. My assessment came in at $243K (we paid $264k) on our home which was built last year, which I THINK is a good assessment? Aside from the exterior elevation, and my neighbor's lot being about 1k larger, we have the same exact model home on the interior, but her assessment came in at $230k. We both have the same # bedrooms and interior square footage, so what would cause the disparity? Is this something that I should protest? Not sure how all this works, since I'm a total newb at all this!

Thanks and I appreciate the insight!

Are you on a corner, with your neighbor in the middle of the block?

In the past, when purchasing, I have twice paid a lot premium for a corner lot (never again ). I don't know if that particular detail matters to MCAD or not.

[Prey521]

Originally Posted by RMESMH

Are you on a corner, with your neighbor in the middle of the block?

In the past, when purchasing, I have twice paid a lot premium for a corner lot (never again ). I don't know if that particular detail matters to MCAD or not.

I'm in a cul de sac on a premium lot. My neighbor is also in a similar cul de sac on an premium lot, which is why the assessment makes no sense.

[trbstang]

Originally Posted by RMESMH

Are you on a corner, with your neighbor in the middle of the block?

In the past, when purchasing, I have twice paid a lot premium for a corner lot (never again ). I don't know if that particular detail matters to MCAD or not.

I know in Harris County it does not matter, so it probably does not matter in others. Our neighborhood has an average lot size of 7,800 sqft, and the larger lots are broken up into two components, the basic lot for 7,800 is appraised at $41K and the sqft over the base is appraised at 1/10th of the base rate. Mine is almost 10,900 sqft and the extra 3,100 sqft is appraised at $1,600, so my total land is $42.6K.